Review: Borges & Piazolla in New York

Borges & Piazzolla in New York
It may seem odd at first to draw a connection between these two giants from the culture of Argentina, author Jorge Luis Borges and bandoneónista Astor Piazzolla, creator of Tango Jazz which he called “Tango Nuevo” (not to be confused with the style of dancing Tango to alternative music with stage moves). But if you consider it a moment, the connection slowly appears.

The most obvious connection is an album of tangos and milongas called El Tango that Borges and Piazzolla created together in 1965. The album has gone out of print, but was rerecorded in 1997 as Borges & Piazzolla: Tangos and Milogas.
Borges & Piazzolla were Universal Thinkers

Borges writes often of the universe. Piazzolla’s music, though Argentine, is universal. Daniel explained that his father loved Borges because there were similarities in their thinking. Hernán Lombardi, Minister of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires, added that “Buenos Aires is a place that is open to ideas from everywhere. Borges was a voracious traveler. This is not a coincidence. The world comes to Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires goes out into the world.”

Astor spent his childhood years in Greenwich Village. His grandson, Daniel Piazzolla, explained that the young Astor tap danced for money and was given music lessons in the neighborhood by a Hungarian classical pianist, a student of the Russian master composer Rachmaninov. The lessons were paid for with pasta and sauce. Maybe this is why tango is so popular in Russia and many fine tango orchestras come from Moscow today….

The City of Babel

When asked why he programmed this event at the Americas Society, Sebastian Zubieta told us, “I believe dialogs between big cities are important and Piazzolla lived here in New York....”

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